Microsoft has suspended some Windows updates to address the Spectre and Meltdown vulnerabilities after some people whose computers use AMD processors reported that their devices did not boot after installing the new patches.
"Microsoft has reports of customers with some AMD devices getting into an unbootable state after installing recent Windows operating system security updates," the company reported in a statement Monday. Microsoft appears to push the blame on the faulty updates with the manufacturer. "After investigating, Microsoft has determined that some AMD chipsets do not conform to the documentation previously provided to Microsoft to develop the Windows operating system mitigation's to protect against the chipset vulnerabilities known as Spectre and Meltdown."
In order to prevent customers from getting in an unbootable state Microsoft would suspend sending updates to devices affected with AMD processors.
"We're working with AMD to resolve the issue and resume security updates to affected AMD devices via Windows Update and Windows Server Update Services," Microsoft stated. Microsoft has made the updates available here.
AMD announced Tuesday that it is working to resolve the issue. "AMD is aware of an issue with some older generation processors following installation of a Microsoft security update that was published over the weekend," the company said.
The vulnerabilities later labeled as Spectre and Meltdown were disclosed last week, resulting in announcements from Intel, Amazon, Google and Apple. They all advised customers to install patches designed to lessen the risk of a hack. Although it's not clear whether malicious hackers have exploited these flaws, security experts say attacks would be easy and could allow the theft of private information such as passwords, credit cards and corporate data on computers or smartphones. Experts say that such hackers wouldn't leave a trace and could go undetected.
Since researchers discovered the vulnerabilities, hardware and software providers have scrambled to develop patches to protect against these flaws. These vulnerabilities could potentially affect every modern computer processor and implicate a broad array of devices, from laptops to mobile phones to cloud networks. Even with some of the patches that have been released, the vulnerabilities cannot be entirely fixed.
For more information about the recent patches released in regards to Spectre and Meltdown, give us a call!
